Microsoft Cuts 800 More Positions — In its third round of layoffs this year, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) says it is cutting 800 jobs across the company today. The software giant said in January that it would eliminate up to 5,000 jobs, in response to falling sales and profits.

Microsoft Loses Don Dodge. This Is A Huge Mistake — Among the 800 or so employees laid off by Microsoft today: Don Dodge, Microsoft's Director of Business Development for the Emerging Business Team, reporting to VP Dan'l Lewin. Don writes about the change on his personal blog.

Google Friend Connect, now more personalized — (Cross-posted with the Social Web Blog) — On the subway, I bump elbows with a guy for 20 city blocks without exchanging a single word. Forty-five minutes later, I find the same guy at the local guitar shop, and we start to talk — turns out he plays a Gibson Les Paul just like I do.

EMI Sues BlueBeat for Selling Beatles Tunes Online — The record label EMI is suing a little-known online music site called BlueBeat.com for selling Beatles songs without permission. — The Beatles catalog, including dozens of the top pop songs ever recorded, has famously never been licensed for sale as digital downloads.

Amazon Turns On The Twitter Pump To Fuel Referral Fees — Tonight, Amazon sent an email to members of Amazon Associates letting them know about a new feature: Twitter integration. Basically, when you're logged into your Associate account, you'll see a new “Share on Twitter” …

Apple Unveils Music-Themed Movie Push — Apple today will launch a new marketing and promotional effort designed to drive music buyers to music-themed movies in its video store. — The most visible change to the iTunes service will be a Music Movies landing page dedicated to music films …

Verizon Wireless: Tethering Coming for Droid — Think the Motorola Droid is almost perfect, but it just needs to be a modem for your laptop? Verizon can help with that, next year. Verizon Wireless told us that their “Broadband Access Connect” plan, which allows you to tether your phone as a modem …

Experimenting with Digg Trends — Because there's so much that happens beneath the surface of Digg, we've been working on new ways to expose the most interesting stories to more people. Today we're launching a new homepage voting experiment called Digg Trends which will surface certain highly active stories …

Clutter-Free, Twittified, Binged (and Also Apple-icious): The New MSN Homepage Debuts (Plus Screenshots and the Press Release) — The new MSN homepage debuts tonight and you would be completely correct in thinking the recipe Microsoft (MSFT) has cooked up to inform its design ethos-white …

Oracle braced for EU objection on Sun deal — By Richard Waters in San Francisco and Nikki Tait in Brussels — Oracle is braced for a formal objection from Brussels to its planned $7.4bn acquisition of fellow US technology company Sun Microsystems, escalating the company's high-stakes legal wrangle …

Twitter's Dorsey Gets His Head Examined — Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey underwent a public session with a psychoanalyst in honor of the Rubin Museum of Art's exhibition of Carl Jung's “Red Book,” a previously unpublished work that discloses the renowned psychologist's own struggles with his subconscious.

USB 3.0 thumb drive pops up — Super Talent goes SuperSpeed — Flash vendor Super Talent is leading the pack again and has come up with a USB 3.0 thumb drive. — Its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 RAIDDRive comes in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities and works with current USB 2.0 ports, but obviously at USB 2.0 speed.

Former HP CEO Fiorina announces bid for US Senate — SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Carly Fiorina said Wednesday she is running for the Republican nomination to battle liberal stalwart Barbara Boxer for her U.S. Senate seat.

Pew Report Says Tech Not Turning Us Into Hermits — Good news, Facebook fans. Using social networks and surfing the Web will not turn you into a hermit. A Wednesday study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that the increased use of technology has not led to a jump in social isolation.